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This week has marked the 79th United Nations General Assembly high-level debate, and as has (unfortunately) been the case in prior years’ meetings, women account for very few of the speakers on the main floor. On Tuesday—the day President Biden addressed the gathering—just two of the 35 leaders who spoke were women (Switzerland’s president, Viola Amherd, and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni); yesterday (where the headline event was Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s address), the number ticked up to four.
ForbesWomen contributor Stéphanie Fillion points out in her coverage of the disparity that UNGA’s speakers reflect the world’s leadership landscape: Just 27 of the UN’s member states have heads of state/government that are female. Gender equality in these high positions of power will not be reached for another 130 years, according to UN Women.
As I’ve been meeting with my own sources this week, they’ve been telling me that the real work is getting done in the side meetings. And here, women are well-represented: At one such side meeting, Oscar award-winning actress and activist Meryl Streep addressed the dire situation of women and girls in Afghanistan, saying, “Today in Kabul a female cat has more freedom than a woman.” At another, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced, in conjunction with the European Investment Bank, five years’ worth of new financing........